We saw the movie The Croods and my kids loved it, now we can play the video game too. That is, as soon as I find our Nintendo DS. DreamWorks Animation created the first family and now you can help them live their adventures by taking them on a road trip in The Croods Prehistoric Party.

Get your mini-game on with the first modern family in D3Publisher’s The Croods: Prehistoric Party, now available in stores for the Wii U, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and DS! Based on DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming animated film, The Croods.

The Croods: Prehistoric Party brings you the lovable prehistoric family as they travel on a hilarious adventure through 30 unique and addictive party-style mini-games. Gamers will be able to explore spectacular landscapes in a new world filled with never-before-seen creatures as you battle your friends and family with up to four-player multiplayer for Nintendo’s Wii U and Wii system (single player for handheld systems).

Join the world’s first family on their first ever road trip in the The Croods: Prehistoric Party!, as you play as one of the lovable Croods family on a hilarious adventure through a ton of unique and addictive party-style mini-games. With up to four player multiplayer for Nintendo’s Wii U and Wii systems (single player for handhelds), explore spectacular landscapes in an incredible new world filled with never-before-seen creatures as you battle your friends and family in this awesome adventure.

Play as One of Your Favorite Croods Characters from the Film – Play as one of the lovable Croods family members from DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming feature film, The Croods, including Grug, Ugga, Eep, Thunk, Sandy, Gran and Guy.

You know how you think about those places that would be amazing to work? Beautiful scenery, nice people, dedicated employees… you make a list of the wonderful things you would love to have as part of your office. After getting a little behind the scenes tour of the amazing world of DreamWorks, I think they might have the market on amazing work places cornered! An on site medical clinic, amazing fresh daily lunches, gorgeous scenery… I just had to share some of the photos with you.

Be sure to check out The Croods from DreamWorks coming March 22 to theaters.

Re-pin great DIY tutorials, printables & more from The Croods on Pinterest!

A big thank you to 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation for inviting us to The Croods Parent Blogger Summit. Some of the photographs featured above are my own, some were provided by a photographer that accompanied us on our tour of DreamWorks.

About Ashley – Ashley is a mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and former teacher working to navigate through the mysterious world of Mommyia. Read more about her adventures at Momicles and follow her@Momicles2010.

Did you know every second of character animation takes about a day to complete? Holy moly! When I heard that at the Parent Blogger Summit for The Croods, my jaw literally dropped. Can you imagine dedicating yourself to something so intensely? That’s just what James Baxter, one of the animators at DreamWorks does, and hearing him talk about all The Croods character animation secrets was almost as amazing as the skill and technology behind the film!

“The fun thing about The Croods… was making these cavemen different from any other kind of cavemen that you’ve seen before, but to also make them really funny and entertaining.” That’s one of the first things Baxter had to say about the character work on The Croods and I have to say they succeeded BIG TIME! The Croods family is a great hodge podge of animal like characteristics and mannerisms, raw human emotion, and tons of physical comedy.

Listening to animator James Baxter discuss his work on The Croods.

When you check out The Croods, you will definitely notice some animal influences in their movements. From the silverback gorilla way that Grugg (the dad) walks, the cat like athleticism of Eep (daughter), or even the little feral Jack Russel way toddler Sandy scurries around – they are all so incredibly believable. If you think that the fun on The Croods stops with fun human characters, you better wait to see all of the creature creations that the team came up with. Have you ever seen a Macawnivore? How about a Piranhakeet? Maybe a Crocopup is more your style. These creatures play a huge part in the movie, so animators spent a lot of time perfecting their moves and mannerisms too! “(And) it was just bizarre trying to come up with believable ways that these ridiculous creatures would actually move so that you could believe it.”

So what is it that makes the animated character look SO MUCH like the actor behind the voice? In The Croods, when I watch Eep (voiced by Emma Stone), part of what makes it so lifelike is the way her face moves: the certain smile or arch of the brow that looks just like Emma Stone. That’s where “lipstick cameras” come into play. Since there is a camera on the actors in the sound booth, animators can use that footage to fine tune a character’s mannerisms and expressions. Apparently Emma Stone is wildly animated when working in the sound booth and gave them a ton of ideas and things to work with.

Where does a lot of animation take place? According to Baxter, “…largely sitting at our desks, animating away, manipulating the puppets.” Once a character is created, animators use special computer programs (when using computer animation) to create a rigging system. You can think of it as the most intense set of puppet strings you have ever seen. With tons of controls for each aspect of a characters movement, it’s no wonder that it takes one day to create 1 second of animation.

Don’t worry, the animators don’t spend all of their time at their desks. One of the things I loved to see was how involved they all were with studying movement. Sure they used a lipstick camera and watched the movements of animals, but the other best test subject, was themselves! How do you see what it looks like for a caveman to fall down? You set up a camera, act like a caveman, and throw yourself down on the ground!

I was extremely impressed with the animation and incredibly lifelike characters in The Croods. Learning some of the behind the scenes secrets just made it even better. I can’t wait for you to see it too!

Re-pin great DIY tutorials, printables & more from The Croods on Pinterest!

A big thank you to 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation for inviting us to The Croods Parent Blogger Summit.

About Ashley – Ashley is a mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and former teacher working to navigate through the mysterious world of Mommyia. Read more about her adventures at Momicles and follow her@Momicles2010.

The Croods will be crashing into theatres in just a few weeks, which makes this the perfect time to share some behind the scenes animation info with you. When I visited DreamWorks, I was actually able to meet some of the character teams that worked on creating the Croods family. Hearing how committed, dedicated and loyal the developers are to the story and the characters definitely explains why the animation is so real and lifelike!

Meet Steve MacLeod. Steve was a guest story artist on The Croods for the past 5 years! He actually started as a trainee with the DreamWorks education system, and now , his name is in the credits. A great tribute to DreamWorks, and also a glimpse into how long it actually takes to make an animated feature film. Writer/Director Chris Sanders added, “That’s the shocking truth of how long it takes to make these. If you have a child at the beginning, they will be going to the premier.”

(Check out Steve and some of his storyboarding.)

So where did the ideas for the actual Croods family come from? The designers on the film, looked back at cave paintings for inspiration on character creation. When they noticed that all of the primitive people seemed to have a certain shape, it was determined that the Croods would be a big, athletic bunch. “…we always were looking at beach volleyball players and downhill skiers and ust people that were athletic and for the whole family because we wanted it to feel real…that they could actually do what we were making them do, “ Kirk DeMicco (Director of TheCroods) added.

Chris Sanders sharing some of the early stages from The Croods storyboards with eager bloggers.

A rough world is definitely one way to describe the intense conditions that the DreamWorks crew created for The Croods. The opening scenes of the movie immediately set the tone of a rugged, tough, primitive world that The Croods call home. In a hunt for breakfast, you see how primitive the terrain and the family really is. Sanders added, “One of the reasons we wanted that in the film from the very beginning was we wanted to really set the dials as far as how tough are these people, how fast are they.” Knowing that the storyboards for this scene were shorthand labeled “Breakfast is a full contact sport” lets you know exactly how tough everyone and everything in these opening scenes really are! Add to that an amazing score including the USC Marching Band, and you’ve basically got a close up view of caveman family football for food!

The Croods having a little down time… obviously NOT during their full contact breakfast.

So what is the storyboarding process like? For The Croods, it started with Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco writing the script. From there, it weren’t on to stroyboards. He artists really adjust the story as they go to really begin bringing things to life. After reading the script, and meeting with the directors to get special notes on a particular scene, the artists get to work. Using EXTREMELY rough drawings, they will then pitch a set of storyboards, get more notes, and go back to the drawing board – literally. After a vicious cycle of revising, editing, re-working, and pitching again, and again, they’ll send it off to editorial to start adding the rough sound. SO COOL!

Some shots of storyboards from The Croods.

Like I said before, knowing how closely the animators, artists, and really the entire DreamWorks team work with a film before it’s released… it comes as no surprise that The Croods made me laugh, cry, and hold my breath more than a couple of times! I can’t wait to see it hit theaters March 22!

Re-pin great DIY tutorials, printables & more from The Croods on Pinterest!

A big thank you to 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation for inviting us to The Croods Parent Blogger Summit.

About Ashley – Ashley is a mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and former teacher working to navigate through the mysterious world of Mommyia. Read more about her adventures at Momicles and follow her@Momicles2010.

Sometimes you head into a movie thinking that you know what to expect: a few jokes, some kid appropriate humor, a little heartwarming moment or two, and a happy ending. When I visited DreamWorks for a screening of The Croods, I thought I knew what to expect – and I was wrong. Instead of a cute little kids’ movie, The Croods proved itself to be a movie for everyone filled with stunning animation, pulse raising suspense, true laugh out loud moments, and heart touching scenes making tissues a requirement. Beyond all of that was something even more unexpected. Within The Croods, are unexpected, but comfortable layers of rich story bringing up the themes of family, fear, and searching for the meaning of life. Who knew you could squeeze all of that into one little movie?

The Croods is the newest film from DreamWorks scheduled to hit theaters on March 22. It’s a film that follows this first family through a hilarious and outrageous adventure through the harsh “Croodaceous” time period.

All of the layers of story and themes under the surface of The Croods are really what make it special to me. While at the parent blogger summit earlier this month, I had the chance to hear two producers (Kristine Belson and Jane Hartwell) and two directors (Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco) of the film share some behind the scenes info on all things Croods. These deep themes were one of the original roots of the entire project, so it’s no wonder it’s so effective. When asked “why cavemen?” Kirk DeMicco had this to say.

“The metaphor and the theme of change is such a relevant thing that everybody goes through…The cavemen were a perfect metaphor…All they’ve got really to talk about is just life and what it means because they don’t have jobs, they don’t have all the other pressures…That’s what really came through. What’s the biggest change that anyone should fear?”

Now I don’t want to get you thinking The Croods is all deep message and serious undertones. It’s not. There are plenty of hysterical moments that carry the meaning of the movie too. Can you imagine the fear of technology… when you’re a caveman? What in the world do you do when you see fire? Here’s what The Croods do.

The dynamics of family are also a huge part of this movie, and one of the biggest dynamics is that between Eep and her father Grug. As a former teenage girl (not that I always want to admit it!), I remember the days of absolutely hating my dad… and loving him more than anything at the same time. Kirk DeMicco (director) even added, “Here at DreamWorks, there’s been lots of families of friends, that’s the way it is. But, actually, a true father-daughter story was pretty unique, and everyone was really engaged by that.”

Whether it’s to laugh at the changes technology brings to this first family ever, or just to do a little thinking about life and how you always need to reach for the light, you need to check out The Croods from DreamWorks. The Croods hits theaters March 22.

Re-pin great DIY tutorials, printables & more from The Croods on Pinterest!

Disclosure – A big thank you to 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation for inviting us to The Croods Parent Blogger Summit.

About Ashley – Ashley is a mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and former teacher working to navigate through the mysterious world of Mommyia. Read more about her adventures at Momicles and follow her@Momicles2010.

During the crazy MomStart travel mayhem, I was lucky enough to make a stop at DreamWorks animation to meet The Croods. I have SO much to share with you from that trip, but I thought it would be good to start off introducing you to the family. After all, how are you supposed to fall in love with this movie as much as I have if you haven’t even met the family yet?

This is Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage). He’s a dad. The man of the family trying to do all things right and keep his family safe, much to the dismay of his teenage daughter. Isn’t that usually the way for dads of teenage daughters though? 😉

Here is said teenage daughter, Eep (voiced by Emma Stone). She’s got an adventurous spirit and is ready to take on the world, much to the dismay of her father!

Behind every strong man, is an even stronger woman, at least that’s what I like to think! I’m pretty sure that Ugga (voiced by Catherine Keener), the mom in the Croods cave, wouldn’t argue.

This is Thunk (voiced by Clark Duke). Thunk is the brother… and I’m pretty sure he’s name says it all. A giant heart is his tool in the harsh Croodaceous time period.

Disclosure – A big thank you to 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation for inviting us to The Croods Parent Blogger Summit.

About Ashley – Ashley is a mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and former teacher working to navigate through the mysterious world of Mommyia. Read more about her adventures at Momicles and follow her@Momicles2010.

In The Croods: Prehistoric Party!, you’ll explore spectacular landscapes in a new world filled with never-before-seen creatures as you battle your friends and family with up to four-player multiplayer for Nintendo’s Wii U and Wii system (single player for handheld systems). The Croods: Prehistoric Party! combines the ultimate fun of a family party game with Croods-style action as you journey through 30 unique and addictive multi-player mini-games. Game boards bring the Croods’ world to life, complete with hazards, never-before-seen creatures from the film, hilarious surprises and rough and tumble competition that only the Croods family can bring.

The Croods: Prehistoric Party! is currently rated “E” (Mild Cartoon Violence) by the ESRB. For more information on the video game, please visit www.d3publisher.us

Game Features

Challenge your friends with the ultimate mix of family fun and Croods-themed party games!

Play as any one of the lovable Croods family members – Grug, Ugga, Eep, Thunk, Sandy, Gran and Guy!

One to four player multiplayer fun! (single or split screen)

30 mini-games on five unique unlockable boards!

Features spectacular landscapes and never-before-seen creatures from the film!